Aquarius/SAC-D: 7-Day Ocean Surface Wind Speed Gridded Data

Aquarius Level 3 data provides global ocean surface wind speed measurements at a 1-degree spatial resolution, averaged over 7-day intervals. This version 5.0 dataset is the official end-of-mission release from the NASA-CONAE satellite, which used a three-radiometer push broom array and a 1.26 GHz scatterometer for surface roughness correction. The dataset represents processed standard mapped images derived from brightness temperature and backscatter measurements.

Use Cases

• Analyzing weekly wind speed patterns over the global ocean based on 1-degree gridded data.
• Validating ocean circulation or climate models using satellite-derived surface wind observations.
• Studying the relationship between surface roughness (from scatterometer backscatter) and wind speed for salinity retrieval algorithms.
• Investigating seasonal wind variability using the averaged 7-day time series product.

Strengths

• Represents the official end-of-mission public data release (Version 5.0), suggesting a final, processed state.
• Provides data at multiple temporal scales (daily, 7-day, monthly, seasonal), with this product focusing on the 7-day average.
• Derived from a specific instrument suite with detailed technical parameters (e.g., radiometers at 1.413 GHz, scatterometer at 1.26 GHz, defined footprints and swaths).

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: exact row count, file size, and specific column/field names are not provided in any source.
• The 'last updated' dates conflict between platforms (2026 vs. 2015), creating uncertainty about dataset maintenance and freshness.
• The spatial resolution (1 degree) may be too coarse for applications requiring fine-scale wind variability.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing via the AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission's radiometers and scatterometer.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: 2026 03 13 (datagov) and 2015 06 07 (nasa_earthdata).

Geography

Global ocean coverage.